Petra Hamer

POSTDOC RESEARCH FELLOW

My field of research as part of/within/ DEAGENCY project include popular music and culture in Southeastern Europe in the 20th and 21st century, history of Yugoslavia, post-Yugoslav space, ethnomusicology, and migration studies.

I have pursued longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in several Bosnian and Herzegovinian cities (Sarajevo, Zenica, Tuzla), researching production of popular war music production in the period from 1992 to 1995. Additionally I have done research in national archives and libraries in Sarajevo.

In the context of the DEAGENCY project I will be researching the role of the dead in contemporary Bosnian and Herzegovinian society reflecting on the mass graves.

MAIN PUBLICATIONS 

2024 ‘Artistic units of the B-H army, production of popular patriotic songs and the question of national identity in B-H during the war from 1992 to 1995.’ In: Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Politics of the Balkans. Catherine Baker, ed. London: Routledge. 

2021 Discourse Analysis of Patriotic Songs Produced During the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina Between 1992 and 1995: Case Study of First and Third Corps Art Units of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Army. Doctoral thesis. Graz: University of Graz.  

2020 ‘National and religious categorisation in patriotic songs made between 1992 to 1995 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.’ In: Die Jugoslawien-kriege in Geschichts-kultur und Geschichts-vermittlung. Julia Thyroff and Béatrice Ziegler, eds. Zürich: Cronos Verlag. Pp: 131-141. 

2020 ‘Vertrieben aus dem Abstaller Feld / Abstall 1946: Die Deutsch-Untersteirer im kollektiven Gedächtnis.’ Der Untersteirer Mitteilungsblatt 53(2): 7-8. 

2019 ‘Popular-Alternative: Making Music in the Besieged Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995.’ In: Popular Music in Communist and Post-Communist Europe. Jan Blüml, Yvetta Kajanová and Rüdier Ritter, eds. Berlin: Peter Lang. Pp. 163-174.  

2018 ‘Modes of transgression in besieged Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995.’ In: Darüber hinaus… Popülare Musik und Überschreitung(en): Proceedings 2. IASPM D-A-CH Konferenz/Graz 2016. Stefanie Alisch, Susanne Binas-Preisendörfer, Werner Jauk, eds. Oldenburg: BIS Verlag. Pp: 62-74.  

2018 ‘Patriotic Songs as a Means of Mobilization in Besieged Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.’ In: Lied und populäre Kultur: Musik im Krieg. Jahrbuch des Zentrums für Populäre Kultur und Musik (63): 111-128.  

2017 ‘Popular Music under Siege: Patriotic Songs in Sarajevo.’ In: Sounds of Attraction: Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav Popular Music. Rajko Muršič and Miha Kozorog, eds. Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Pp: 115-136.  

2017 ‘The cult of šehid in Bosnian patriotic music production.’ Kazivač, Journal for Themes in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology 2(2): 37-42. Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Zagreb, Croatia. 

 FIELDS OF INTEREST:

Popular music and culture in Southeastern Europe in the 20th and 21st century
Ethnomusicology
Migration studies 
War in Bosnia and Herzegovina